Christian Johannes Koch, born 1986 in Switzerland, is a director and screenwriter. His work straddles a variety of media and institutional contexts. After studying photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, he completed his diploma and master's studies in film directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. With the social drama SPAGAT he realized his feature film debut, which celebrated its world premiere in 2020 in the New Directors Competition at the 68th San Sebastián International Film Festival. SPAGAT drew international attention, was nominated several times for the Swiss Film Award and won the Zurich Film Award in 2021. His current film project WIR WAREN KUMPEL, winner of the Kompagnon-Förderpreis at the Berlinale 2021, is currently in post-production. Christian Johannes Koch lives in Zurich as well as Berlin and works transnationally.